Main Street Principles for Data Privacy Legislation
American businesses have no higher priority than earning and maintaining trusted relationships with their customers. To preserve those relationships, businesses must protect and responsibly use the personal information that customers share with them. As policymakers consider legislative and regulatory solutions to address data privacy concerns, our coalition urges adoption of the following principles.
Guiding Legislative Principles
- Comprehensive and Uniform Federal Standard. There should be a comprehensive federal law on data privacy that protects consumers in a nationwide, uniform and consistent way.
- Transparency for Consumers. Consumers should be informed of the categories of personal data that businesses collect and how that data is used by them.
- Preserve Customer Services and Benefits. A federal data privacy law should preserve the ability of consumers and businesses to voluntarily establish mutually beneficial business-customer relationships, including rewards and loyalty programs.
- Responsibility for Own Conduct. Any privacy law should make all businesses responsible for their own conduct. It should not expose them to liability for privacy violations by their business partners, including contractors, franchises and other businesses.
- Statutory Obligations for All. Small businesses should not be forced to hold other businesses to privacy standards through contracts. All businesses that handle consumers’ personal information should have direct privacy obligations under the law.
- No Exemptions. Every industry sector that handles consumers’ personal information should have equivalent legal obligations to protect consumers’ privacy under the law.
Our Members
